Romania - presidential election

Romanians head to the polls in presidential vote

Article published on the 2009-11-22 Latest update 2009-11-22 11:59 TU

Romania's President Traian Basescu talks to the media after voting in Bucharest
(Photo: Reuters)

A low turnout was expected in Romania for the first round of voting in the presidential election in spite of the country’s current political paralysis.

The result of Sunday’s election is expected to be tight. Twelve candidates are running but polls have shown the incumbent centre-right President Traian Basescu and his Social Democrat rival Mircea Geoana are likely to face each other in a run-off set for December 6.

Both are likely to garner between 30 and 33 per cent of the vote in the first round.

The winner will have to find a new prime minister following the collapse of Emil Boc's centre-right government in October, something which has left a toothless caretaker government in charge.

Voter participation, however, has dropped from the high of 86 per cent in the 1990 election that followed the fall of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to 58.93 per cent in the last presidential election in 2004.

The 58-year-old Basescu, a former sea captain who has been in office since 2004, voted in Bucharest accompanied by his wife and two daughters.

"It is one of the most important polls" in the last 20 years, he told reporters.

Geoana, who is 51, was an ambassador to the United States in the late 1990s and foreign affairs minister between 2000 and 2004.

He also voted with his wife and children in the capital, saying that "after five years of scandals” Romanians can choose another way to emerge from the economic crisis.